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But some schools are way ahead of the curve. By using technology, giving students the opportunity to choose what they want to study, or even just allowing teachers to deviate from the curricula norm, these schools have already taken education to the next level and waiting for the ministry to catch up.

There was a great article in the New York Times this weekend, "You've Won a Badge (and Now We Know All About You)," that explains how businesses are using gamification to deepen engagement with their brands. Reviews possible education connections.

Are we bold? So, with a minimum of description, I'm thinking "bold" schools are: 1. Learning Centered - Everyone (adults, children) is a learner; learners have agency; emphasis on becoming a learner over becoming learned. 2. Questioning - Inquiry based; questions over answers 3. Authentic - School is real life; students and teachers do real work for real purposes. 4. Digital - Every learner (teacher and student) has a computer; technology is seamlessly integrated into the learning process; paperless 5. Connected - Learning is networked (as are learners) with the larger world; classrooms have "thin walls;" learning is anytime, anywhere, anyone. 6. Literate - Everyone meets the expectations of NCTE's "21st Century Literacies" 7. Transparent - Learning and experiences around learning are shared with global audiences 8. Innovative - Teachers and students "poke the box;" Risk-taking is encouraged. 9. Provocative - Leaders educate and advocate for change in local, state and national venues.

Actually I get the feeling this is been shared before oh well some good ideas as a template for us to work towards

Don't shoot the medium. While no doubt FB presents challenges in its application in education, the real problem is not Facebook. The issue is professional value of teaching in the US, and North America in general. Until teachers are treated as professionals with salaries, responsibilities and statuses on par with university professors, following the Scandinavian and Asian models, the calibre of professional conduct will be as inconsistent as the pool of quality teacher candidates committed to an underpaid and undervalued profession.

Great discussion piece... good for TOK and beyonmd... Good for a staff discussion... . I like #1, 2 (especially for Mulgrave! I want access like Starbucks!), 4 (go Wikipedia), 5 (go Facebook),  #6 is Mulgrave's moment. Love #8: If you were a video game, no one would play you -- feedback is too slow. But I'm slow anyways 

We've spoken of education for so long as though it is representative of an objective academic truth that we've missed the fact that for the majority of human history it was a matter of survival. A matter of love. A matter of inspiration and compulsion. As often a matter of the irrational as the rational.... there may not be any objectively "best" practices, only your communities' own best findings in any practice. 

Are hardbound textbooks going the way of slide rules and typewriters in schools?

Dan Russell, a Google "search anthropologist" who studies how everyday people search for information online, told The Atlantic last week that 90 percent of people don't know that they can use CTRL or Command+F to find a word in a document or web page.  Now did you know that? Do your students know that?

While I know this concept is not new, but I feel like we should do unconference

Something for Night of the Notables?

I know that "flipped" is a trendy idea right now. While I am intrigued by the idea of video tutorials to help guide students in learning, it is absurd to suggest that a video can replace a human in creating the ultimate customized learning experience. What this concept misses is the nature of human learning. Teaching is a relational endeavor. I'm a proponent of the flipped approach. But if we are pushing for flipped, we need to make sure that remains a conversation.

There are certain things, good and bad, that ebooks can't offer. Old bookmarks, penciled annotations and chocolate smudges between the pages... the tactile human touches that make die-hard proponents of print swear they'll never make the switch. But those traditionalists are becoming the minority of library borrowers, as the relative convenience of ebooks -- downloadable from the comfort of one's home -- appeals to more and more library users. According to recently-released stats from the Vancouver Public Library, the lending and borrowing of electronic content, and in particular ebooks, is exploding.